Consolation
by Kavi Leighanna
Summary: Episode reaction to Off the Grid. Nicole and Antonio argue over what is best after the difficult turn of the case.
1. Chapter 1

**Consolation **

**_My way of the ending of Off the Grid with Nicole and Antonio, and my first try at a Missing story. I apologize for any characters being OOC, though the fact that this is my first one is not trying to make excuses for it_**

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It wasn't like Nicole to break down and even for Antonio to see the woman cry was a miracle in itself. She'd tried so hard to save Emma, so incredibly hard and for Nicole, a miss like this was devastating.

"Nic…" he tried, his hand smoothing up and down her back as best he could. There was a whole lot of things that Antonio was prepared with when it came to Nicole Scott. He tried so hard to keep up with her, tried to be there for her and tried to be supportive. Having said that, he had a difficult time doing it.

"Antonio…" Nicole whispered back, her head still buried in his neck. Then he felt her lips on his muscle.

"Not like this," he whispered, feeling her arms loosen and her hands – previously gripping his head – lighten into a caress.

"Please," she breathed. He was having a hard time resisting. He'd waited long enough for Nicole as it was, but he wanted to understand her.

"Nic… really… not like this." He pulled away from her mouth, cradling her head and keeping an arm around her waist. If there was one thing he knew about Nicole, it was her fear of rejection

"You're fragile, Nic, not all here, not all yourself." Her eyes called out to his compassion, called for him to give in and let himself go. His conscience knew better.

"I'm fine, Antonio… I just… I need this." She paused. "Please, Antonio."

And he knew. He knew he'd give into her, regardless of what he truly believed, understood that she needed this. And when she saw his eyes, she knew it too.

Her lips crashed onto hers and they exploded in a whirlwind of passion. He walked her backwards towards her bedroom, the glasses and bottle she'd previously gotten out now forgotten. He could taste her tears on his lips, could feel the salt drying on his neck where she'd cried and so their kiss was bittersweet. But Antonio didn't ask questions.

Her fingers trailed down his chest, tracing over where the shirt hugged the hard curves of his muscles. His tucked under her sweatshirt, but didn't move further. There was still part of his brain worried about taking advantage of her vulnerable state of mind. Sure, this wasn't the first time they'd fallen into bed together, hell, the best part of his morning was waking up beside her.

Her hands gripped his wrists, pulling them up her back to her bra strap. They broke their kiss for long enough to breathe and for his shirt to come over his head before she attacked his mouth again. His tongue duelled with hers for dominance in her mouth as he arched her back over his arm, getting caught in the moment and forgetting his honourable intentions and his inhibitions. They broke their kiss, her hands gripping his shoulders as his kisses trailed over her neck.

Her breath was short and laboured and Antonio's hands gripped her back, pushing her sweatshirt up and over her head before returning his lips to her skin. They traced a trail down her front and back up to her lips. His hands trailed down her side, settling on her hips and holding there and slowing them down a little bit.

"Nic," he breathed, locking eyes with her.

"If I have to tell you I need this one more time," Nicole began, "I swear to God, I am never sleeping with you again."

Antonio couldn't help the smile that blossomed over his face. This was the Nicole he knew, the one he'd been originally attracted to. He attacked her this time, their movements taking on a life of their own as they stumbled towards her bedroom.

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**_Sorry it's short, I just decided to split it up into short chapters. The second one's written, so the first review puts it up. I'd like to know how you like it, since it is my first try._**


	2. Chapter 2

**_I promised I'd put this up after one review, and I got two. Therefore, this is slightly overdue!_**

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Antonio woke the next morning, Nicole still sleeping beside him. He was still worried about her, still upset with her reluctance to talk to him.

_I knew coming here last night was a bad idea,_ he said to himself as he stumbled towards her kitchen for the life-giving brown substance people called coffee. And he had. He'd puzzled over the choice for close to an hour before his heart got the better of him. He'd known Nicole was going to be a little worse for wear, especially since she'd gotten emotionally attached and after she'd tried so hard to help. Upon checking the time, he called Jess, telling her they were going to be in late. The last thing Nicole needed was a fresh new day without sufficient sleep. He only hoped her dreams were good.

_Speaking of,_ he thought, feeling her hands settle on his shoulders. He turned to face her. She looked awake, happy almost.

"Morning," he said softly, not wanting to disturb the blissful silence that was blanketing the room.

"Morning," she replied, allowing her hand to trail along his clothed back – he'd gotten dressed when he'd gotten up, knowing their timing was a little late – as she moved to get her own cup of coffee. It was then she caught sight of the clock on the oven and spun to face him.

"Jess knows," he said defensively. "I'm sure she's explaining things to Pollock right now." The silence turned apprehensive as he waited for the inevitable explosion.

"Why?" The word was all but growled. Still, Antonio held his ground.

"You needed sleep."

"I can take care of myself." Antonio turned his gaze away from her.

"Can you?" The words were asked to his almost empty cup and almost soft enough to be hidden by her angry shuffling. Her sudden stillness alerted him to her knowledge of his question.

"Pardon me?"

"This case ran you to exhaustion, Nicole, we all know it."

"And you think it's up to you to fix it? To just leave it alone, ignoring everything?"

"You don't run this relationship on your own."

"You were the one that told me it was a give and take!"

"You don't do either," he shot back. "You won't take the comfort, you won't talk to me when I know you're upset and you damn well won't give me the time of day." With that he left, leaving Nicole stunned in her kitchen.

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**_Again, I apologize for the shortness of this. I chose frequent short chapters instead of spaced out long ones. I hope you don't mind that much..._**


	3. Chapter 3

The last thing Jess expected was to see Antonio come in before Nicole, and to see him as upset as he seemed. It wasn't her place to ask about what must have happened to put the depressed look on his face but she was curious…

"Nic coming in too?" she asked, nonchalantly. They hadn't received a new case – a record, when dealing with Pollock and being his best team – and Jess was too bored with the paperwork to look at another report.

"I think so." Now Jess knew something was wrong. Antonio was never this blasé about Nicole.

"You want to talk about it?"

"I wouldn't know where to start," he replied scathingly. Jess, who'd leaned over his desk as he sat down, straightened in surprise.

"That bad, huh?"

"She doesn't talk to me," he finally said, having looked around for any eavesdropper.

"She doesn't talk to anyone," Jess answered, her tone suggesting the statement was obvious.

"But she should talk to me." She could understand where he was coming from, but if there was something that both had learned about Nicole in the time they'd known her, it was her reluctance to talk to anyone.

"This is something new to her too," Jess tried to reason. "It shouldn't surprise you that she's reluctant to dive into any blatant sharing."

They didn't get any further. Jess could tell the angry clicks of Nicole's heels a mile away and bolted back to her desk, trying to motivate herself with the reports. She looked up cluelessly as Nicole sat in the desk beside her.

"Morning."

"Morning," Nicole mumbled back.

"You good?" Jess asked, knowing full well she wasn't.

"Fine," Nicole answered, opening the top file on her desk and absorbing herself in the words. Jess looked from Antonio to Nicole and sighed. If they weren't going to talk to each other, it was going to be a long day.

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**_Maybe Jess should stick her finger in the matchmaking pool, just to get them to work through it. I'm thinking the planning of a really great dinner date..._**


	4. Chapter 4

Jess slammed her hands down on her desk in frustration. It was such a surprise that even Nicole jumped.

"What the hell?" Nicole snapped, her thin hold on her temper getting the better of her. However, any other words she was thinking of immediately scattered when she saw the fiercely determined look on her partner's face.

"You and I are going to talk." Nicole had never heard Jess this angry before and, with a confused look, followed her partner and friend into the elevator. As the car started rising, Jess did something Nicole had never seen her do: she pulled the emergency lever. The car stopped immediately and Jess spun on Nicole.

"What the hell is going on with you and Antonio?" Nicole's walls sprung up immediately at Jess' question.

"That does not involve you," Nicole said scathingly. However, Jess had suffered enough of the tension. It was late afternoon, after all, and Antonio had been in and out of the bullpen and over to where they sat a number of times with all sorts of different case tidbits. He'd only ever directed his words at Jess and when Jess had to ask Nicole's opinion, the other woman would force her to restate everything Antonio had told her. She hated playing middleman and was determined to stop it, here and now.

"It involves me when you decide to broadcast it throughout the office! Jesus, Nicole, do you not notice the tension flying through the air? And I'm not stupid either. The two of you have not said one word to each other. The whole thing with me having to repeat _everything_ he says and the fact that he's only talking to me tells me this is too deep for someone not to get involved. Now. What. The. Hell. Is. Going. On?" Nicole crossed her arms over her chest, looking at Jess like she was an alien. Jess deflated slightly, the anger still singing under her skin but buried far enough for it not to affect her voice or gestures.

"Nic, you don't have to talk to him, okay? We're both aware that's not how you work, but you have to be able to trust someone, sometime. We trust you and we share with you, but all I know about you I've learned from various bits that I've picked up through our cases," Jess said carefully, not actually looking at her partner.

"It's my life." Jess knew that talking about this would lead to Nicole being defensive and curling further into herself. Jess pushed the button to make the elevator move again without saying another word. Just as the doors dinged open and Jess knew Nicole was breathing in relief she spoke.

"Are you taking care of it?"


	5. Chapter 5

They ended up making it through the day relatively unscathed. Jess was the first to leave with a heavy, burdened sigh and less of a spring to her step than usual. Antonio was next, leaving without saying goodbye, or looking back. Nicole was left on her own and to her own thoughts.

Since Jess' outburst earlier that afternoon, Nicole had been doing an effective job pretending that she was reading the files, going over information and test results. In reality, it wasn't so true. She'd been reading the same file for the last three hours and not absorbing a since word of the information written in it.

Much of what Jess had said Nicole knew to be right and smart. For the small, young woman she was, Jess knew a lot and that very few things now escaped her vision. Still, Nicole had the hardest time sharing and letting people know exactly what was going on in her head. If she was to be honest, she was afraid of getting hurt again.

But Antonio knew that. He'd always been careful around her, careful to say the right thing and not tread on the wrong toes when he couldn't support himself. He knew what she had gone through in her childhood, at least the surface of it, and he hadn't turned her away yet. He knew about the job, knew about the scheduling conflicts and knew the after-effects of a particularly hard case.

Knowing what she had to do, Nicole stood and made her way out of the office.


	6. Chapter 6

The knock on his door was a surprise, the woman on the other side even more so.

"Nic?" She smiled sheepishly, slightly apologetically.

"Hey," she said softly, her hands folded in front of her so as not to fidget.

"Come in," he said, his voice still holding the shock he was feeling. She walked into his apartment not moving much further than the entranceway.

"What's up?" She took a deep breath. The words she was about to say really were not going to come out easy and she needed all of the courage she'd managed to collect on her way here.

"I owe you an apology," she said carefully. Antonio's brows knit in confusion.

"For what?"

"For my attitude, for my inability to share," she said, her voice going softer. Antonio almost had to strain to hear her but he wasn't going to ask her to repeat it. He also managed to hide the small excited grin that was creeping onto his face. Instead, partly to hide his face, he wrapped his arms around her carefully. She fell into his embrace.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked after a few minutes, his hand still travelling up and down her back. Nicole couldn't stop the sad smile that sprouted over her face.

"Yeah."


End file.
